Former mayor reﬂects on his time in ofﬁce

New City of Canning mayor Paul Ng says divine intervention won him the position and he was looking forward to working with the new council.

After four years of service the time has come for former City of Canning mayor Paul Ng to move on.

Mr Ng wasn’t re-elected for a second term and said he was disappointed, but also at peace with the election outcome.

During his service Mr Ng said he spent most of his time in council and at home contemplating things related to Canning and he now sees this as an opportunity to spend time with his family.

“I intend to continue contributing to the Canning community in some way but I will take some time to decide on how best to do so,” he said.

“On a much lighter note, I do have a whole wardrobe full of self-tied bow ties,so I just might auction off some to help pay for my retirement.”

While he has no intention of running again for mayor, he said these past four years of service have been both a privilege and a blessing.

“There have been so many highlights, such as improvements against performance measures like the reduction in rate increases and improvement in Canning’s Financial Health Index,” he said.

“It has been rewarding having overseen the organisation of many events like Mid Week Eats, Muddy Hands Festival and Youth Fest that have brought the community together.

“Also conducting Australian Citizenship ceremonies which I estimated that I had conducted 89 and it has been wonderful welcoming our newest citizens, which reminds me of how fortunate we are to live in this country.”

However, Mr Ng also said he faced some challenges when in council and said he had to ﬁnd out the hard way, that every word he used must be carefully constructed.

“There was the time when I used the word “salary” as a better understood term, while the good intentions were there, and I did salary sacriﬁce a total of $94,091 to the council (which no other Canning councillor has done), the very public debate during that time was unpleasant,” he said.

“However, throughout the rest of my term as mayor, I did try to be more conscious of the subtleties of the English language.

“Lastly, but perhaps the most arduous for the council in my view, is that partisan allegiances, rather than an independent and Canning-ﬁrst approach, had undue inﬂuence on council decision-making.

“This was, and will be, an ongoing issue.

“I take this opportunity to wish the council every success in delivering best outcomes for the City of Canning now and into the future.”